


Subtleties

by sleepydemons



Category: Football RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Abrupt Ending, Butterflies, Drunken Kissing, Experimental, Fluff, Is it fluff?, Liverpool F.C., M/M, Romantic Friendship, idk what to tag this, kind of, set in a bar, they're really cute together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:25:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6718681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepydemons/pseuds/sleepydemons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emre gets stood up by his best friend but it doesn't matter in the end as he spends his evening with Stevie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Subtleties

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at 3AM after a night out this weekend so this is purely inspired by my never ending excitement for cocktail themes and my sadness that Emre's probably going to miss the rest of the season.
> 
> I've never written anything like this so any kind of constructive comments would be massively appreciated!  
> 

The music was blasting loud in the club, low and scratchy and muffled slightly by the fuzzy ringing in Emre’s ears. Shaking his head side to side loosely to the beat he hummed the Def Leppard song to himself as he got more and more into the chilled atmosphere.

He was sat with his back to the bar, a lime Mojito cocktail in hand as he sipped through the straw at a quick pace, it was his third of the night and he was really beginning to let himself relax now. Exactly what he was hoping for. 

Emre had planned to meet up with Phil here at the fancy, red lit and black furnished club, their favourite and where they’d had some brilliant nights out in the past; but this time Phil had cancelled at the last minute when Emre had already ordered in their drinks and grabbed them a bowl of pistachios.

 _Well I still want to relax,_ Emre’d thought to himself, trying to get a legit, not pitiful reason ready for when Phil asks him what he ended up doing instead in the morning.

It was true, he’d had a rough few sessions with the lads in therapy, working through his treatment for his ankle was frustrating to say the least. He wants to be fit for the Anfield game against Villarreal but it’s not looking too good so he’s been trying to do double the training that he’s been talked through which he knows isn’t the greatest, but… _it’s the semi-final!_

 

Swaying in his seat and enjoying his cocktail as the music changed to something heavier and indecipherable he caught eyes with someone he’d never expected to be in the same city, never mind the same bar.

That smile was inviting and warm and he was tipsy so he gave a little head nod and a salute with his glass.  
Suddenly he saw him move to push through the small crowd that was near him; Steven Gerrard was walking up to him. He greeted Emre with a klink of his coke glass which was probably laced with a vodka or rum, Emre couldn’t decipher which he thought would be more Stevie at this point, he was too preoccupied with not messing up since they hadn’t spoken in a while and he really didn’t want it to get awkward, Stevie was his captain once and he wanted to show him he still mattered to him.

“Didn’t know you were back around here, mate?”  
Emre tried to stay causal and show some friendly interest, though the butterflies in his stomach were growing more intense as he stared into the Scouser’s glowing blue eyes under the darkness of the clubs atmospheric lighting.

‘Yeh, lad, miss it all, y’know? Need a break every now and again to bring myself back to familiar territory...”

Emre nodded, he knew that feeling, he missed Germany so much. But he’d found a home in this new city and he couldn’t be happier being here at this club right now, he wasn’t home sick like Stevie, he just needed company to enjoy the night with.

They chatted about the city and the Dortmund game at Anfield for a little while, the excitement and pride beaming all over Stevie’s face as he expressed his passion and belief that his team could be so utterly astonishing, yet so predictable once again.

Emre beaming with his own pride at the part he played in that massive, massive game, gutted though at the fact it could end up being his last game of the season.

By this point they’d both finished their drinks and Stevie was offering to buy another round for them, handing Emre a weird looking pink drink with loads of ice piled up, Stevie nodded;

“Trust me lad, it’s fucking fit this drink, it’s _rose liqueur!”_

Emre eyed the glass with a smile and a lopsided look as he gulped down the drink through the fancy straw, nodding his head “I’ll have to remember this one, it’s all right!”

Stevie laughed and elbowed him lightly as he nodded his head in agreement, moving closer to the German as he drank, so they were leaning shoulder to shoulder as they watched the centre of the room where the club’s dancers were performing.

“Good vibe in here isn’t there?”  
Emre lent his face towards Stevie’s ear to make sure he could hear him over the harsh drums of the music,  
“great isn’t it? Love the themes they do as well, getting colour schemes to match and always pulling off any kind of show they want to put on,”

Stevie knew he was babbling a bit, but he noticed Emre didn’t seem to mind, plus he had asked for his opinion. It was the drink he decided, and became very pleased with himself as he realised how quickly it’d become second nature for him to be back in here once again. Like he’d never been away.

Emre sat there, cocktail in hand, Stevie to his left, leaning against him as they watched the most elegant performance from the two club dancers he might’ve ever seen. 

The two girls were poised perfectly against one another, their hands connected as they mirrored each other’s face and arms while the dancer on the left with the glistening blonde curls floating down her back held her back curved with her right leg floating up into the air like an intricate spear, so dainty but strong as her left leg held her balance with immaculate structure. 

The girl on the right was sat gracefully on the shinning floor, her right leg pushed out as straight as she could keep it, while her left leg pushed up, her knee pointing outwards with her calf bent inwards to follow the sharp angle of her right leg like a bow and arrow. Her crimson hair pushed up into a curled bun, sections falling down over her pale features creating so much contrast between the two of them as they posed and contorted into new, asymmetric angles. It was really beautiful.

Emre let out a sigh, feeling his weight shift as he lent on Stevie a little bit more to keep his own balance, he hadn’t realised how close he and Stevie had gotten until he was practically leaning his head on his shoulder.  
Stevie’d noticed the movement and wanted to know if it was all in his head or if this could potentially be a thing that could happen. So he sighed, not in an obnoxious, bored way, but in a content, questioning manner which caught Emre’s attention. Instead of completely lifting his head away from Stevie’s shoulder to give him a questioning look, he pushed his head up further so they could make eye contact like that and raised his brows to make sure everything was okay…

Stevie smiled at the motion, _this kid’s cute, really cute_ , he thought.

Emre turned to face Stevie again after a while of them enjoying the dancers’ classy performances,  
“You want another drink?”

Stevie’s eyes lingered on Emre’s lips, the question not quite registering straight away until he saw those same lips curve up into half smirk,  
“I’ll get us the same again, yeah?”  
As Emre turned to grab the bar guy’s attention Stevie stopped him with a hand on his arm,  
“D’you fancy going somewhere else instead? I know a quieter place…”

He said the last bit with a little smile and a shrug that kind of made Emre’s stomach butterflies return, at that he was basically entranced, what else could he do but nod his head as Stevie grabbed his arm tighter and pulled him towards the exit.

 _Emre what are you doing?_ His mind raced for a moment, but his instincts took over as he rationalised the situation, he was just going for drink with an old team mate, nothing up with that, right?

They got to the place fairly quickly, it was only round the corner from the first bar so they weren’t able to fully acclimatise to the windy midnight air before they were at their next stop. A rustic looking little cocktail bar with a strong, alchemy sort of homey smell and some comfy seats as you turned the corner into the area where the bar stood.

Emre’d never seen this place before, definitely quieter than the first stop but he liked it a lot, it reminded him of a science lab almost, all the drinks he could see that the strangers around him had looked like they were concoctions of a mixologist version of Picasso. 

Definitely going to enjoy it here, Emre thought as he dropped down into the comfy seat next to Stevie on a corner sofa. Stevie ordered the drinks since Emre got too engrossed in the menu to reply when a server came over to greet them.  
_They’re book themed!?_ Emre thought as he grinned ear to ear at the creativity involved in the whole menu. How had nobody ever mentioned this place to him before?

Their drinks arrived, bubbling with white foam on top as the liquid shifted from orange underneath to a deep red towards the bottom and a cute little bag of humbugs were attached to the straw as well. 

The drink was like a mix of sherbet and humbugs Emre thought, he nodded at Stevie as he took his first sip, his eyes going wide as he registered it as best cocktail ever.

Again they had naturally sat close to one another, sat right back into the sofa, shoulder to shoulder as they held their glasses close to sip from. 

Stevie could see the happiness etched all over Emre’s face, he got a little flutter in his chest as he thought about the fact that he’d made that smile happen, that he was the one to bring him to such a cool, almost underground place. 

Leaning in closer, not really registering what he was doing as the alcohol had taken full hold on him by now, Stevie was just going on pure feeling. Emre noticed the movement, it felt subtle to him but it mustn’t have been really since he was starting to feel his body going numb to from the drinks, but he knew that this felt right and it felt easily comfortable. he wanted this, as long as Stevie did to.

They were centimetres away, Emre’s eyes closing as he could feel the contact becoming real and then Stevie’s lips were on his and it was _everything._ Emre smiled and Stevie felt it, he smiled back into it, daring to push a hand up to meet the German’s chiselled cheekbone, wanting to deepen the kiss even further.

It felt like forever and like a split second all at once before they were parting lips. Stevie kept hold of Emre’s face, wanting to capture every detail in his features from the shadows of his beautifully carved jawbone to the ruffled, rugged look of his gelled back hair and the look of pure, honest happiness in his eyes.

Emre was staring at Stevie as they pulled away, not able to keep his eyes off the Scouser. He’d never been kissed like that before... He wanted that, again and again and again, for eternity.  
He wanted to laugh at himself really, hearing himself think like that about a former team mate, but it was so genuine and so real.

Emre leaned in again, wanting to relive the moment all over. He saw the slight relief on Stevie’s face and wanted to reassure him that this was totally okay with him, he pecked Stevie’s lips softly, then nodded so that Stevie would get the message loud and clear. His lips lightly ghosting over Stevie’s and then they were moving against each other again, Emre pushing his hand up to Stevie’s neck as their teeth crashed slightly and the kiss got deeper.


End file.
